Digital World with Game Changers, Presented by SAP

The buzz: Is faster ‘smarter”? You don’t need to be a statistician to access sophisticated analytics online and run them incredibly fast. But despite the powerful tools available to all companies, many organizations still spend too much time gathering data and too little analyzing and interpreting it. Will disseminating the tools to all company levels enable superior decisions? Is data quality still a challenge? Are your board’s requests for analytics giving them too many choices that slow them down? The experts speak. Derek Loranca, Aetna: “Any time scientists disagree, it's because we have insufficient data. Then we can agree on what kind of data to get; we get the data; and the data solves the problem… (Neil deGrasse Tyson). Gil Gomez, IBM: “Your data is talking. Are you listening?” Timo Elliott, SAP: “Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted” (William Bruce Cameron). Join us for Does Simplifying Access to Data Make Us Smarter?

The buzz: Peek-a-boo. I see you! With information transparency fuelled by social aka human-created data, the collection and manipulation of our personal data by businesses is ubiquitous, and we’re not happy about it. The challenge is not with social networks, but with data collection policies of businesses that harvest and process data from these networks. What are the ethical and legal implications? Do we have a say? The experts speak. Tim Barker, DataSift: “Computing is not about computers any more. It is about living” (Nicholas Negroponte). Nora Boukadid, EY: “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent…It is the one that is most adaptable to change” (Leon Megginson). Roger Gorman, ProFinda: “To connect our collective wisdom and social capital, to change the world, is hindered often by data, policies and processes. If we can navigate this, it's time for data-driven serendipity.” Join us for Data Privacy and Protection in The Age of Transparency.

The buzz: Seriously. Social media is the real deal. How? It can help achieve and surpass your customer support goals. Who says? Key findings from a 1000-company research study. Reality? More service interactions are taking place over social channels. Best results: Integrate social media activity with customer engagement strategies. Ready? The experts speak: Brent Leary, CRM Essentials: “We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It's our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better” (J. Bezos). Joe Hughes, EY: “In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing” (T. Roosevelt). Reza Soudagar, SAP: “If you defer investing your time and energy until you see that you need to, chances are it will already be too late” (C. Christensen). Join us for Social Gets Serious: Customer Experience Management Tools.

The buzz: Privacy. The fabled “360-degree customer insight” is within reach as Marketing enters an era of data science-driven insights. Brands can now understand customers like never before, via internal company data and human-created data from social media, mobile and wearable devices. But can your company build insights while protecting consumers’ privacy and gaining their trust? What should you do before rushing to the “art of the possible? Can IoT and privacy co-exist? The experts speak. Eleanor Treharne-Jones, TRUSTe: “Privacy…shouldn't be the price we accept for just getting on the Internet” (Gary Kovacs). Sagi Leizerov, EY: “The answer to effective de-identification of personal information and minimizing privacy risk is not a clear black-and-white. It is rather a constantly morphing 50 shades of gray.” Tim Barker, DataSift: “The future is already here—it's just not very evenly distributed” (William Gibson). Join us for Consumer Privacy in the Era of Big, Human Data: Possible?

The buzz: Decentralizing. In the industrial age, businesses like railroads and electric power companies grew large because centralizing allowed them to deliver improved services to their markets. Now we’re seeing a paradigm shift fueled by technology-enabled de-centralization. Innovations like 3D printing, the Internet of Things, smart watches, mobile technology and Tesla’s standalone battery to power a home or office – all allow us to de-couple from businesses. These exciting – or scary – disruptions have vast implications for the future of your business. Are you ready? The experts speak. Frank Diana, TCS: “The challenge is to rehearse the future and prepare for a range of possibilities” (Fast Future Research). Gray Scott, Futurist: “Nothing comes unannounced, but many can miss the announcement” (Terence McKenna). Timo Elliott, SAP: “Status Quo is, you know, Latin for 'the mess we’re in'” (Ronald Reagan). Join us for Eating Disruption for Lunch: Digesting Decentralization.

The buzz: Happiness. Enterprise software has been delivering increased functionality for years, but too often at the expense of ease-of-use. Why? Good design is notoriously difficult and thus not addressed or measured by most IT teams. UX projects are a business investment, where satisfaction must translate into performance to calculate ROI. Should UX be part of project development from the get-go? The experts speak. Jaco Van Eeden, Deloitte: “The world is complex, and so too must be the activities that we perform. But that doesn’t mean that we must live in continual frustration.” (Don Norman) Michael Romeo, Deloitte: “You have to start with the Customer Experience and work backyards to the technology” (Steve Jobs). Phil Dervan, SAP: “We should judge our industry by the happiness we create.” (Cennydd Bowles) Mark Schenecker, SAP: “Simple can be harder than complex…But…once you get there, you can move mountains.” (Steve Jobs) Join us for User Experience in Enterprise Software: ROI of UX.

The buzz: Boom! Enterprises and organizations worldwide seek to continually innovate and expand their products and services, markets and geographies, customer base—while retaining their existing base, growing revenues, improving productivity, energizing employees. This takes a long time, you say? Not with the cloud, where savvy businesses are creating new offerings at 'supersonic' speed. Actually minutes, days, or weeks vs. months or years. Are you ready? The experts speak. Dr. Fausto Bernardini, IBM: “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man” (G.B. Shaw). David Sweetman, SAP: “I saw for the first time the earth's shape …the shores of continents, islands, great rivers, folds of the terrain, large bodies of water…the feelings which filled me I can express with one word—joy” (Yuri A. Gagarin). Join us for Innovating at Cloud Speed: The Real Game-Changer

The buzz: Digital natives. Today’s workforce is rapidly absorbing a new generation of workers raised with personal computers, smartphones and the Internet. Not always comfortable working 9-5 or filling a single org-chart box, these digital natives have a different expectation of work and what technology fundamentally is, compared to previous demographic cohorts. How will they shape your organizational topology and technology landscape? The experts speak. Steven Dubis, Amazon: “This new wave of people coming through office doors near you are not just tech literate…what they’re not used to are constraints and being restricted by an IT department…” (Alastair Mitchel). Kinh Demaree, Axiom Zen: “Don't worry, be hapa. (T-shirt. Hapa is Hawaiian for mixed ethnicity). Chris Mark, SAP: “Don't aim for success if you want it; just do what you love and believe in, and it will come naturally.” (David Frost). Join us for Great expectations: Meeting the demands of a new wave of workers.

The buzz: Headache #999. What is your CXOs’ worst headache today? Redesigning the company from the customer’s lens to create an emotional, social, networked, mobile-first enterprise that appreciates the power of the crowd. Their challenges include intelligently using digital to achieve a profitable customer experience, turning digital investments into business advantages, shaping seamless operations. Can they ensure your company thrives in this digitally powered, global economy? The experts speak. Maggie Buggie, Capgemini: It’s all invented” (Benjamin Zander). Gerry Brown, Ovum: “Today there is no room for mediocre…the key question for us at Publicis and our clients is ‘how do we de-silo and still protect our core cultures?’” (Maurice Levy). Ira Berk, SAP: “In the absence of clearly-defined goals, we become strangely loyal to performing daily trivia until ultimately we become enslaved by it” (Robert Heinlein). Join us for Digital Customer Experience: Redesigning Your Organization.

The buzz: Designing Minds Organizations are realizing that the key to achieving sustainable innovation is to learn and scale creativity by applying design thinking. But successfully bringing design thinking, a culture of innovation and a learning environment to all enterprises, academia and governments worldwide is still a tall order that requires training champions and fostering creative confidence. Will it come together anytime soon? The experts speak. Fred Leichter, Fidelity Labs: Embrace surprises (Cindy Tripp). Tim Shriver, The Future Project: “This is important: to get to know people, listen, expand the circle of ideas. The world is crisscrossed by roads that come closer together and move apart, but the important thing is that they lead towards the Good.” (Pope Francis). Sam Yen, SAP: “One of these universal decisions is whether and when to take a more ‘Catholic’ or a more ‘Buddhist’ path” (Bob Sutton).Join us for Solving Innovation Challenges: Take Design Thinking Global

The buzz: New Era MIT researchers say the invention of the steam engine began the most transformative social development in the last 3000 years. Fast-forward to today’s paradigm shift – the convergence of technologies fueled by innovation accelerators like renewable energy, robotics, cognitive computing, Internet of Things. Is your organization prepared to thrive? The experts speak. Frank Diana, TCS: “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them. (Albert Einstein) Thornton May, Futurist: “When it’s steam engine time, people will invent steam engines….major innovations occur not when an inventor is struck by a bolt from the blue, but when the scientific and social conditions are ripe.” (New Scientist) Timo Elliott, SAP: “First time in history, the world’s leading experts on accelerating technology are consistently finding themselves too conservative in their predictions...”(Steven Kotler) Join us for The Next Paradigm Shift and Your Digital DNA.

The buzz: UX One iPhone puts more computing power in the palm of your hand than all of MIT had a few decades ago. Augmenting this enormous power with near-constant connectivity and expanding it to wearables and other innovations, the mobile revolution has radically redefined our relationship with technology. What’s out? Monolithic apps, heavyweight program suites, perfection and comprehensiveness. What’s in? Lightweight purpose-built apps, speed and availability. The experts speak. Scott Bonnell, Mocana: “Nielsen claims that the average smartphone owner has more than 27 apps on their phone, yet IDC claims that 61% of Fortune 1000 companies have 3 or fewer apps.” (Nielsen and IDC) Owen Pettiford, CompriseIT: “Well, some people without brains do an awful lot of talking, don't they?” (The Wizard of Oz) Adi Kavaler, SAP: “The future is not what it used to be.” (Yogi Berra, NY Yankees, 1974) Join us for Mobile and User Experience: Exploring New Frontiers.

The buzz: On the Road Again. Looking to fast-track to the proverbial corner office in a global organization? Three requirements. Be a recognized top talent. Keep your bags packed for off-site travel on a moment’s notice. Smile when relocated to foreign destinations. Sounds like an exciting career, right? Not so much, say the 60% of mobile high-achievers who resign within a year of returning home from a foreign assignment. Could HR systems and processes be at fault? The experts speak. Michael Romero, Deloitte: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” (A. Einstein) brbr Stacey Harris, Sierra-Cedar: “The worst thing an organization can do is to try to ‘keep’ talent.” brbr Dr. Steven Hunt, SuccessFactors: “Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” (Mark Twain) brbr Join us for Digital Road Warriors: Managing Top Talent on the Move